Notre Dame remained No. 1, Oklahoma made the Top Ten for the first time
and
Xavier reached its highest ranking ever Monday in The AP women's basketball
poll.

Baylor and Wisconsin both returned to the Top 25 after being ranked
earlier.

The top six teams stayed the same, with Notre Dame a unanimous choice
for
the second week in a row. The Irish became No. 1 for the first time in
school
history last week and beat West Virginia 87-64 in their only game.

Notre Dame (19-0), the nation's only unbeaten Division I women's team,
received all 39 first-place votes from the national media panel and had 975
points.

Connecticut (17-1), which has lost only to Notre Dame, held at No. 2
with
932 points and was followed by Tennessee (21-1), Duke (20-1), Georgia (18-3)
and Purdue (19-3).

Tennessee and Duke both won three times during the past week. Duke was
especially impressive Sunday in a 92-42 rout of Clemson, which has been in
the
Top 25 the last six weeks.

Louisiana Tech moved up one spot to seventh after two decisive
victories and
traded places with Iowa State, which slipped to eighth after splitting two
games - a 79-74 loss at Baylor and a 95-61 victory over Colorado.

Florida climbed one spot to ninth and Oklahoma jumped two places to
10th
after a solid win over Texas Tech. The Sooners' highest ranking previously
had
been 11th the week of Jan. 12, 1986.

Louisiana State held at No. 11 and Texas Tech fell three places to
12th.
Then it was Southwest Missouri State, Rutgers and Xavier, followed by Penn
State, Clemson, Utah, Vanderbilt and Baylor.

Texas, Oregon, Colorado, Villanova and Wisconsin held the final five
spots.

Xavier (17-2) moved up three places to 15th after winning three times
during
the past week. Before this season, Xavier had appeared in the poll only
once -
at No. 24 in the final rankings last season.

Baylor (15-3) returned to the Top 25 after being out for one week. The
Bears
dropped out after losing three straight, but bounced back with victories
over
Iowa State and Texas - the first time they have beaten ranked teams back to
back.

The win over Iowa State was Baylor's first against a Top Ten team.

Wisconsin (12-7), ranked the first six weeks of the season, has been up
and
down and comes into the poll off a loss - 75-70 in overtime at Purdue. The
Badgers had won four straight before that game, in which they outshot and
outrebounded the Boilermakers.

North Carolina State and Arizona dropped out.

NC State (11-8) has lost four straight - by margins of one, seven,
three and
six points. The Wolfpack were ranked 22nd last week and had been as high as
13th.

Arizona (14-5), which was 23rd, lost to Arizona State in its only game
last
week, the Wildcats' third straight loss.